HB314 - Child Custody and Parenting Plans

• Removes outdated code language providing automatic custody to husbands after a child reaches seven years of age in cases of wife abandonment.

• Requires courts to mandate parenting plans in all custody cases, specifying time-sharing schedules, healthcare responsibilities, educational decisions, and communication methods between parents.

• Establishes a presumption that joint custody is in the child's best interest when both parents agree to it, and requires courts to consider joint custody in all cases before awarding other custody arrangements.

• Creates the "Tate Amendment" requiring courts to hold emergency custody hearings within 72 hours when a verified motion concerns health, welfare, or safety risks to a child; allows courts to award attorney's fees for frivolous emergency motions.

• Authorizes courts to enforce parenting plan compliance through makeup time-sharing, attorney's fees, parenting courses, cost reimbursement, or other reasonable remedies when a parent refuses to follow the court-ordered schedule without proper cause.